Scottish Executive

Crofting

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether a policy of encouraging crofters to purchase their crofts is being pursued.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive neither encourages crofters to purchase their crofts nor discourages them from doing so. We believe the decision about buying is a matter for the individual crofter, who is best able to judge where the balance of advantage lies in his/her own case.

Housing

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made to date towards achieving its objective of improving 100,000 houses suffering from dampness and condensation by 2003 through the Healthy Homes Initiative, as outlined in Working together for Scotland: A Programme for Government.

Jackie Baillie: Over 96,000 homes were insulated in Scotland between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2001. We expect to substantially exceed our Programme for Government commitment to insulate 100,000 houses, and so tackle condensation and dampness, during the lifetime of this Parliament. A report on the warm deal in 2000-01 will be published later this year.

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-17373 by Mr Jim Wallace on 22 August 2001, whether the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill is likely to give rise to an increase in legal actions against land managers under the Occupiers’ Liability (Scotland) Act 1960 and what advice or assurances it can give to land managers on this matter.

Mr Jim Wallace: We have always made clear our intention that the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill should not increase the liability of landowners towards those exercising access rights. Following consultation on the draft Land Reform Bill we are considering the need to give effect to this on the face of the Bill.

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-17782 by Mr Jim Wallace on 21 September 2001, whether access agreements and management agreements will be abolished under the proposed Land Reform (Scotland) Bill and what the annual cost of such agreements has been in each of the last five years.

Mr Jim Wallace: As stated in the answer given to question S1W-17782, the need for access agreements will disappear with the introduction of the right of responsible access. Management agreements will continue to be provided for under section 49A of the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967.

  With regard to the annual cost of access and management agreements as stated in the answer given to question S1W-17774, this is a matter for Scottish Natural Heritage.

Ministerial Correspondence

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Justice will reply to my letter of 19 July 2001 regarding my constituent Mr A Beaton of Forglen.

Mr Jim Wallace: Our records indicate that a reply to your letter of 19 July was sent to you on 28 August. I will, however, arrange for a further copy of my response to be sent to you.

NHS Staff

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many cleaners are working for the NHSiS currently and how many were at the same point in (a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999 and (d) 2000.

Susan Deacon: Information on the number of cleaners working for NHSScotland is not held centrally.

Roads

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis officials of BEAR Scotland Ltd advise MSPs who contact them directly that they are under an obligation not to communicate directly with MSPs on any matters relating to trunk road maintenance contracts.

Sarah Boyack: The contract requires correspondence, sent directly to the operating companies by members of Parliament and members of the Scottish Parliament, to be referred in writing to the Scottish Executive and for the originator to be informed. The previous contracts contained similar conditions.